Welcome to the Consumerist Archives

Thanks for visiting Consumerist.com. As of October 2017, Consumerist is no longer producing new content, but feel free to browse through our archives. Here you can find 12 years worth of articles on everything from how to avoid dodgy scams to writing an effective complaint letter. Check out some of our greatest hits below, explore the categories listed on the left-hand side of the page, or head to CR.org for ratings, reviews, and consumer news.

ben popken

This was my last week writing for you. Keeping up with the word on Main Street has been incredibly rewarding and kept me in touch with the rest of America while perched inside my Brooklyn blog castle. Because even though it’s my byline on my posts, it’s you, the readers, who drive what I write. It’s your stories and comments that make Consumerist great. Thank you for letting me spend 6 years with you. I just hope these monitor-induced double-bags and dark circles under my eyes aren’t permanent.

I got to verbally joust with the wielders of the Grocery Shrink Ray yesterday on NPR on the Diane Rehm show. Scott Faber vice president, the Grocery Manufacturers Association talked about how food makers have to pass on their rising costs somehow and I agreed, but took issue with deceptively designed packages and the misleading marketing practices. Just be upfront about it! [More]

The Consumerist is invading Bloomberg TV! Set your DVRs, Ben Popken will be appearing on a new segment driven by Consumerist content of the show “Taking Stock” with Pimm Fox every Wednesday at 5:35 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. ET for the next few weeks. You can also tune in live at bloomberg.com/tv. Don’t miss it! [More]

Consumerist is going to be on the CBS Sunday Morning News on 11/7 at 9am Eastern. They asked me about some of our all-time worst customer service horror stories. We should get a decent amount of screen time. Set your DVRs to stun! [More]

As any Mad Men fan can tell you, ads are all about creating the itch and then selling the cream to soothe it. You stoke the desire and then offer the solution. Sales ensue. But what the modern dreamweavers on Madison Ave have figured out is that the two don’t even have to be related. You could show a bunch of elephants trampling a village – an anxious event, indeed – and then “Pencils! Get 20 for $2” and you have yourself a great ad. Very Eisenstein, and for some reason, this tactic seems especially popular in cellphone ads. I remember a Verizon one where a girl had to have a llama and it was socially awkward. Inspired, I wrote up a short sketch to demonstrate: [More]

I was on NPR this morning chiming in about the Comcast NBC merger that’s hurtling like a freight train through Washington (spoiler alert: not a fan). Here’s the clip. At the end, the reporter says that when he asked Comcast about their coming first in our Worst Company in America contest, they dismissed the entire affair as a “cheap stunt.” We take offense. A trophy that cost $30 and had to be air-mailed from Japan is not cheap. [More]

If you live in the San Jose, CA, Silicon Valley area, you can catch me live on the Michael Finney show on KGO Newstalk Radio, 810 AM, at 6:25 PT tonight. l’ll be talking about some of the crazy ideas and cool stories you shared in response to our “What Sickest Thing You’ve Ever Done To Save Money?” post. Fun! [More]

UPDATE: Here’s the video. If you live in the DC area, tune into ABC 7 tonight at 5:45 pm to see a Consumer Alert I shot with local reporter Kris Van Cleave. Apparently, this morning like six of their reporters all got scam robocalls on their cellphones with a recording saying their ATM card had been deactivated and they needed to call the bank back. Hello, scam! [More]

I hit the streets of New York with a video camera, asking taxi drivers, youths, store owners and chicks eating donuts, “What’s the worst company in America?” Most people laughed and said, “Worst company?” — and then thought real hard and gave us some answers, answers which may shock you! This video has subtitles so you can watch it at work without anyone knowing. [More]

How would you like to be wallowing up to your eye sockets in filthy lucre?!?! PLUNDER FUNNEL is a sure-fire money-making factory that will teach how you to cannibalize any human relationship and turn it into cold hard cash. Taylor Sternberg from Broadway’s “Jersey Boys” stars in this Consumerist original video parody, written and directed by Ben Popken. [More]

Catch PLUNDER FUNNEL, starring Taylor Sternberg from “Jersey Boys” on Broadway, this Saturday at 7pm at Coco 66 in Brooklyn. Written and directed by me, Ben Popken, and shot by Consumer Reports kickass video team, the new new Consumerist short skewers late-night get-rich quick schemes with gleeful abandon. The spoof gets shown as part of a free show my sketch comedy troupe DANGER CLUB is throwing down, but, of course, you’ll get to see it on Consumerist first. Deets inside. [More]

Join me tonight at 6:30 pm at 620 8th ave, 15th floor for a New York Times hosted panel on “Your Money: A Financial Tuneup.” The whole idea behind the “Financial Tuneup” is that once a year you should set aside 10 hours to just tackle every niggling item on your personal finance todo list. Here are some tips on doing that. RSVP for tonight’s event at financialtuneup.net. [More]

Next week the New York Times has asked me to be on a panel they’re hosting called, “Your Money: A Financial Tuneup,” along with Your Money columnist Ron Leiber, Jean Chatzky, the author of “Money 911”,” and Burton Malkiel, an economics professor at Princeton and author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.” Should be a fun and engaging look at how people are dealing with personal finance issues in these times. [More]

Marketing blogger Joseph Jaffe’s new book. “Flip The Funnel” preaches some of the same new religion we do at Consumerist and uses as examples some of our favorite stories, like United Breaks Guitars and boogers in the Domino’s. Joe is all about how customer service should be the first thought, not an afterthought. He warns how if companies don’t stop being like Delta and start being like Zappos, if you don’t make retention the new acquisition, social media will kill you. I like Joe’s rap and I happily agreed to pen the forword, and I thought I’d share the results with you: [More]

Join me and NY Times columnist Ron Lieber for a “being smart about personal finance in the recession” panel discussion and Q&A Thursday, March 25, at 6:30 pm. The show happens at 620 8th ave, 15th floor, admission is free. RSVP to financialtuneup.net. [More]